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James Herbert

Best-selling horror writer who launched his career with a tale of mutant rats terrorising London

March 21 2013, 12:01am, The Times

James Herbert at his home in Sussex. His background as an art director for an advertising agency stood him in good stead when it came to designing some of his own book coversPan Macmillan/PA

Man-eating ants, chemical weapons, paranormal events, deadly plagues, religious zealotry, child abuse and haunted houses, were all grist to the mill for James Herbert, whose horror novels rolled off the production line of his fertile mind with relentless regularity over a period of 38 years from his debut with The Rats in 1974.

Although his output slowed down throughout the 1990s and the first decade of the new millennium, he had continued to publish until last year and his most recent title, Ash, featuring one of his favourite protagonists, a paranormal detective, had been released in paperback earlier this month.

Herbert’s 23 novels had sold more than 54 million copies to date and he had been published in 34 languages including Russian and Chinese. He…

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